An ANZAC with a Difference

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At http://www.bobvine.gen.nz/ANZAC%20Story%20SJ%20Vine.pdf you will find the story of my Grandfather, Sergeant Sydney John Vine MM the son of a Dorset labourer who arrived in New Zealand in 1912 with Captain Charles Shawe, ADC to Arthur William de Brito Savile Foljambe, the 2nd Earl of Liverpool (1912–20), New Zealand's first Governor-General.

Sydney was Captain Shawe's Chauffeur and Manservant until enlisting with 1 NZEF on 15 August 1914.

He marched into camp on that day and left for Suez on 16 October, was at the landing at Gallipoli from where he was transferred through Malta to the military hospital, New End, Hampstead.

His arrival back in England allowed him to marry Winifrede Annie Edwards who had worked as a scullery maid at Government House in Wellington and had returned earlier in the year to England for Dad's arrival in this World.

My Dad was born 29 July 1914 in Sussex, England just on a fortnight before Sydney enlisted here in Wellington, New Zealand.

Our hero rejoined the hostilities on 16 October 1916 when he was taken on the strength of 1 Brigade, 15th Battery in the Field. This was towards the end of the New Zealand Division's involvement in the third battle of the Somme.

During the course of the Ypres offensive and the Battle of Passchendaele, October 1917, he was awarded the Military Medal for "gallant conduct", the citation reading "When word was received at the Battery that the F.O.O. (Lieutenant Bridgeman) was lying wounded in a shell hole forward, this N.C.O. and another immediately got out and after a long search under heavy fire, found hit and brought him safely back to a Dressing Station".

1919 saw his repatriation to New Zealand with his wife and at that time 2 sons. He died in July 1922 at the age of 35 "death due to war service" leaving fatherless a family of 5, the youngest of which was born 7 months after his untimely passing.

I, of course, never met my Grandfather but have learned through my research of his life and the times, to stand proud with the values that he gave his life for.

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